A Shift in Sanity
by Oreramar
Summary: One Sue with an unknown power. Two Slayers of questionable sanity. Eight leagues distance to the sea. Well over a hundred psychotic, humming butterflies. A battle to make Mossflower make sense again, even though we don't.


**A/N: **Here it is. Modeled in part after Kelaiah and LittlePsychoWolf's _The Sky's the Limit_, with our own strange twists and turns of phrase (most of which were stolen from one fandom or another, incidentally. See if you can spot them all!) Note that storiewriter co-wrote this, but she doesn't like you all, so she's not going to put in a note herself. (Kidding. She glares at me as I type this.)

Standard Redwall disclaimers apply, as do disclaimers for whatever else we brought in from the otherpaths. You'll probably know it when you see it.

Enough of that. Happy reading, and let us know what you think.

* * *

A fox, shadowed in the forest, suddenly stepped into a patch of strong moonlight for the sheer glory of it, which just happened to have a glittering, crystal-clear pool of water nearby that let her admire her flawless reflection.

Her dark midnight eyes, rimmed around the pupil with a sweet baby blue, were half-covered with slightly lowered long lashes, each as black as the darkest, moonless night. Whiskers of polished moonlight arched gracefully from her muzzle, never detracting from her everlasting beauty. A brilliant pelt of silver fur, streaked with midnights and darker shades of gleaming metallic gray, rippled in the moon's glorious reflection of the sun. She lifted a paw, observing the ebony black claws which reflected the silver light raining down from above. Smiling, her ivory teeth glistening in star-stunning beauty, she further admired herself, stroking the silky-soft pure white underbelly fur that glowed with an inner light, healthy and flawless in its perfection.

Her tail swept the air behind her, long silver fur dotted with beautiful blues and fading out to an ivory white. She looked longingly at the sky, but knew it was for naught. Not yet…

She cried out in the sweetest voice in all of Redwall, "I am Azaelayna Blau-Mezzanote Estrela-Le Soleil Luneparfaitevonnacthimmel! I am the Warrioress of Redwall, the _Licht_ of _Dag_, the Flame of the Everlasting East, and the Soul of _Fioredelmuschio_. Come to me, the Chosen One of All Warriors of Redwall!"

The vixen tipped back her head and howled, the noise so sad and heartbreaking as she broke down and shed tears of pure moonlight.

* * *

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep…_

_Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep…_

"Go 'way…"

_Beebidybeepidybeep…_

_BEEPBEEPBEEP!_

There was a groan, and the figure underneath the blankets shoved said items off and stumbled over to the alarm clock, reaching for its 'Off' button.

But it wasn't ringing.

Eyes only slightly opening with the realization, she groaned again, and dove under the covers, pressing her pillow over her ears. _Let the others deal with it…_

"Kalyn, get up! There's a Sue!"

"No. 'S too early."

There was an exasperated sigh. "It's nine in the morning. Get up! We've got to go!"

"It's too early!"

The covers were ripped off, and she immediately crawled to the other end of the bed, clutching her pillow like it was the last thing she owned in the world.

"How do you think I feel? I was woken up from Flying!"

Kalyn squinted one eye open. "So?"

Another sigh. "Just get up, please?"

She groaned. "Fine." There was no way she'd be able to get back to sleep, anyways.

Shuffling off the bed, she resigned herself to being awake, though she paused for just a moment longer to yawn and rub her eyes before stepping into the otherpaths.

Aelin was waiting for her in their humble Headquarters, already in otter form. The manual klaxon shut-off lever had been pushed up, and the computer was running through its start-up exercises, punctuated by groans and whirrs as it also woke up from a long night's sleep. Aelin stood by the counter beside the computer, pulling a mug from a hook. She glanced up as Kalyn entered and transformed into a squirrel.

"Want any tea or cocoa?"

"Tea. With LOTSA sugar."

"Desperate for energy, huh?" Aelin unhooked another mug, filled both with water, and popped them into their small, otherpath-powered microwave. "I'll let you shovel your own sugar in, then…but don't take too much. Last thing I need to deal with is a sleep-deprived, hyperactive squirrel."

The computer beeped twice and lit up fully with the welcome screen. Kalyn flopped into their only swivel chair like a wet rag and grabbed the mouse (to which Aelin had taped a small picture of Martin the Warrior, printed off the internet, in a fit of pun-driven humor). A flashing red folder appeared on the desktop. The squirrel double-clicked it, opening a Word document that outlined as much data as the computer had gathered about the Sue or Sues in question.

**Biographical Data**

_NAME: Azaelayna Blau-Mezzanote Estrela-Le Soleil Luneparfaitevonnacthimmel_

_GENDER: Female_

_AGE: 18 seasons_

_BEING: Projection_

"I updated the sensors recently," Aelin said from behind Kalyn. "Before, it couldn't differentiate between a real-being like us and a projection, which most Sues are. Now we're good there."

Kalyn hummed in something like agreement, or indifference, and continued to scan the information. Aelin read over her shoulder until the squirrel got fed up, printed a copy, and thrust it at the otter.

_SPECIES: Fox … ERROR: Conflicting Data; check sensors for accurate feedback_

"Hah. Fun. Checking sensors…hard enough finding places to _put _them, let alone going back to them all…"

Kalyn ignored Aelin in favor of the report.

_WEAPONS: Sword (silver, 18 ft length)_

_TITLES CLAIMED: _Warrioress of Redwall, _Licht_ of _Dag_, Flame of the Everlasting East, Soul of _Fioredelmuschio, _Chosen One of All Warriors of Redwall

**Powers and Abilities**

_Swordsbeastship (emphasis in agility, acrobatics, etc.)_

_Beautification_

_Turning_

_Other_

"Other?" Kalyn asked, pressing her face closer to the screen. "I thought you said these sensors of yours were good?"

"I said they were _good_, not omniscient. Here's your tea. Get your own sugar for it."

"Omniscient?" Kalyn started shoveling sugar into the mug.

"All-knowing."

"I hate these sorts of surprises," the squirrel mumbled, sipping the tea. She sat up straight, and her eyes widened as she continued to gulp it down. Her tail jerked spastically.

"And here I thought that 'bright-eyed and bushy-tailed' was just a figure of speech," Aelin commented, watching Kalyn start to visibly snap with energy.

"C'mon, c'mon, let's gogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogooooo! Hurryup!"

"I'm still drinking my tea," the otter replied. "It's too hot to just gulp down all at once. If you're so eager, go ahead and get yourself geared up. Check the closet, over there, third shelf up. I made utility belts."

Kalyn made a sort of high pitched, uncharacteristic, sugar-influenced squeal of delight and dashed over to the closet, leaving the mug to teeter around its bottom rim. Aelin reached out to steady it, watching carefully as Kalyn launched herself at the third shelf, grabbing both belts and, swinging once, pushed herself off and flipped over in the air, obviously enjoying the sense of freedom she drew from the otherpaths, from the direction of the 'Star Wars' cluster.

Kalyn sprinted back to the Aelin, and tossed her one belt, uncannily seeing that her Redwall Super-Pocketknife replaced the normal one Aelin had in her holder. Cackling madly, she opened one of the pouches and found the compressed garlic oil. Then the liquid garlic oil. Then the communications device.

"Cool! Do I getto sendannoying messages toyou allathetime?"

"No. Don't try it."

Scowling in her direction, Kalyn continued to search through the pockets, and found the empty compartment. Puzzled, and quiet for a second or two, she turned to Aelin expectantly.

"Whatever fits in there from the otherpaths, you can put in there. However, there is a canon charge in there already, for emergencies."

There was a wicked gleam in the squirrel's eye, and she immediately opened a pocket and grabbed out a lightsaber, a wand, a blaster, and as many Weasley's Wizard Wheezes ® as she could stuff into the compartment. Aelin rolled her eyes at Kalyn's choices, but refrained from saying anything. Instead, she began to fill her own otherpath pack with slightly more reasonable items: a length of rope, a grappling hook, matches, some packets of lembas bread (from middle earth), and a small tent (just in case). After a moment's consideration, Aelin went ahead and added a lightsaber of her own, and just managed to squeeze a tightly-folded cloak in beside the tent, also just-in-case.

Aelin looked up to see Kalyn inspecting the slightly smaller pack that sat just to the right of the otherpath pack. "That one's for provisions. Marching snacks," Aelin said, turning to her own. "I put a couple of granola bars in there for starters. Go ahead and pick up some munchies of your own to go in there."

Five minutes later, Kalyn's food pack was stuffed to the brim with trail mix, lembas, and candied chestnuts, and she was ready and raring to go.

"Hurry _uuuuuuuup!_" Kalyn pounded the floor with the base of her bow and shook her tail impatiently. Aelin gave her sword one last swipe with the garlic-oil-soaked cloth, sheathed it, and spread her claws.

"Okay, I'm ready."

"YIPEEEEE—OW! Lemmego!"

The otter did not relinquish her hold on Kalyn's tail immediately. "First I want you to be reminded of something. We don't pull on the otherpaths' power except when we need to, and then only as much as we must. Right?"

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssss…"

Aelin gave her a Look. "No Force or force-like jumps, spins, runs, pushes, pulls, or other techniques. No apparating, as in Harry Potter. I saw that wand you stuck in your otherpath pack – emergency equipment only, that is."

"Yes, _Yoda_." Kalyn then mumbled something incoherent.

"I'll ignore that."

"But what if my bow or something like that is out of my reach? I can't use the force then?"

"Not unless no one else is around, and only if it's way out of reach and you need it _right then_."

"What if there's a cloud of mosquitoes swarming around me and eating me alive, thus distracting me from the task at hand? I can't use the Force to push them away?"

"Okay, fluff-brain, two things. One: you'd have to push every individual mosquito away, _individually_, if that didn't catch your attention. Two: IF a swarm of rabid mosquitoes suddenly attacked, you have a weapon on your belt that they hate. Garlic spray. No more questions or hypothetical situations. We've got a Sue to kill. And if you do anything…overly unusual…I swear I will kick your tail into next week!"

"But if there's—"

"NO! NOW GET MOVING," AELIN ROARED, FINALLY REVERTING TO KELAIAH'S 'ALL-CAPS MODE' OUT OF SHEER ANNOYANCE. And with that, she opened the door to the otherpaths and dragged Kalyn through by the tail.

* * *

storiewriter: I swear, I will find a way around that. Just you wait…

Oreramar: I'm sure you will. Just remember that I'll probably be rather unhappy with you when you do.

storiewriter: I'll be far away, hopefully…I like those (…)'s.

Oreramar: They're called ellipsis. And we'd better get on with the actual story; the readers are probably getting bored.

* * *

Azaelayna twirled around in a circle, her arms spread out as she gracefully danced in the field of flowers, mostly beautiful white daisies and pink peonies. There were a few daffodils, but there weren't many of them. White and Pink are so much better than that drab yellow…

She laughed, and lilted a soprano, beautiful song, one that entranced the nearby butterflies and dragonflies and ladybugs (though they were her least favorite—they were pretty enough to be nice, but they were still _beetles_…) into singing the lyrics with her. They somehow all knew the tune, and the words (sung in the Ancient Language of the Chosen—or, in other words, Suespeak). It all looked rather like a badly conceived Disney scene…

"Gag me with a Cockroach Cluster, but isn't this the most sickening thing you've ever seen?"

Azaelayna whirled around beautifully, staring in mild surprise at the otter and squirrel who had just appeared in the grassy field.

The squirrel immediately began to turn circles, trying to reach a pack on the back of her belt. "I think I have some of those, hang on!"

"Have you come to join me in my dance, gentle beasts?" Azaelayna cried out in delight, misinterpreting the squirrel's movements as a very clumsy attempt at graceful twirling. It might be good to have some companions, especially once she made them as beautiful and intelligent and almost as wonderful as herself.

The squirrel's eyes glazed over briefly, but the otter grabbed her by the ears and shook her. The squirrel's gaze cleared up immediately, changing into a glare.

"Snap out of it, Kalyn," the otter said. "Keep your focus."

Kalyn (what a simple name!) stuck her tongue out at the ottermaid, and spoke in a clear tone to the Sue. "We must decline your gracious offer, for my companion does not like your kind."

It was oddly patronizing…

Then the otter smacked Kalyn. "I told you, focus!"

"That wasn't Sue-ness, that was me making fun of Sue-ness!"

"Oh."

Azaelayna cocked her head at them. They were very odd. Perhaps they wouldn't make such good companions after all…

"Aelin, you know I don't like it when you hit me!"

Aelin: it was a better name than Kalyn, Azaelayna thought. _Oh, that's funny,_ she suddenly realized. _The names _almost_ rhyme. _

"This is neither the time nor the place for this. Weren't we here for a specific reason?"

The otter, Aelin, nodded in what seemed to be a significant way at Azaelayna. The vixen wondered if the two had come to offer to join her or serve her. She wondered if she would accept. They seemed rather…simple-minded.

"No, I thought we were out for a lark!"

"Sarcasm ill becomes you."

"What book did you steal that line from?"

"I forgot."

They were forgetful thieves, then. Probably not good companions. Azaelayna cocked her head the other way to better study them. They didn't _look_ like vermin or vermin followers, but one never knew these days…

The otter shook her head. "Enough of that. Shall you do the honors, or shall I?"

"You."

"Fine. Watch my back, okey-day?"

"Roger, roger."

"Your droid voice is awful."

Azaelayna wondered for a brief moment what a 'droid' was, then she noticed the otter's paws going up to the sword hilts crossed on her back. In a flash, Azaelayna drew her own sword, Skystriker, from the hilt across her own back: though it was well over eighteen feet long (more than three times Azaelayna's own height), she wielded it with the grace of a born warrioress.

Kalyn grinned, throwing Azaelayna off for a moment. Enemies were not supposed to _grin_ at Skystriker. They were supposed to blanch in fear and fall to their knees, begging for mercy.

"Look, Aelin, it's a _sheeeeeeeeshkabob!_"

Aelin threw the squirrel a dirty look. "Are you going to help me out, or what?"

Kalyn flopped down on the grass, flattening a few unfortunate flowers. "Nah. I'll watch your back…enjoy the show…munch some trail mix…"

"Kind of you."

During this strange banter, Azaelayna had let her sword tip drop, little by little. And so, despite all her superb reflexes and agility, she simply wasn't prepared when the otter darted forward and slammed her two swords down in a cross-block on Skystriker. Aelin began to run forward along the silver blade's side, keeping her twin swords across it. This time, though, Azaelayna was aware and ready. Lithe and graceful, she skipped to the side, and then suddenly, for no good reason, Skystriker was out from under Aelin's pinning block, and was instead raised in the air, poised to fall on the otter's unprotected head.

There was a streak of gray fur, moving faster than she thought possible for such ordinary creatures, and suddenly Kalyn stood between herself and the otter. Green light blazed suddenly in the squirrel's paw, flashing against Skystriker for a brief moment. The light vanished, and Azaelayna pulled her sword back, staring disbelievingly at the red-hot, half-melted end of her blade…which was suddenly five feet shorter than it had been. What weapon was _this_?

"Told you I'd watch your back…pity about the trail mix, though."

Aelin spun her swords at her sides. "Thanks, and I forgive you for your use of otherpath-speed. It was very well-exercised."

"Thank you." The squirrel smiled, and turned her attention back to the beauteous vixen.

Azaelayna knew when to stash one weapon or technique and pull out another. She was, after all, a vixen: crafty and cunning above all others. Therefore, she put away her sword (obviously useless against whatever blade-cutting power this squirrel may possess) and instead prepared to use a bit of her personal magic, the greatest of any in Mossflower.

"_Nen-blau-mezzanote i-estrela-le-soleil wilwarin-luneparfaitevonnacthimmel!"_

* * *

Aelin and Kalyn watched in shock as the foxmaid shouted out her gibberish (Aelin could've sworn that at least one part of it sounded genuinely Tolkien-Elvish, though she couldn't be certain) and turned into a butterfly.

"Oh…so that's what the 'other' under 'powers and abilities' meant," Aelin said slowly, letting her swords droop until their points rested on the ground.

"Ya think?"

"Well, I obviously _am, _so yes, I think."

Kalyn blinked.

"Quote reference. 'I think, therefore I am.' I think it was Descartes who said it…anyhow. We'd better get that butterfly."

Kalyn slowly looked over the large, flower-coated field, very pointedly squinting and shading her eyes. The squirrel then faced Aelin and raised both eyebrows.

"I don't know if you noticed, but she turned into an _electric-blue_ butterfly with a wingspan over _six inches_, and she _trails glitter when she flies_," Aelin said, just as slowly as Kalyn had gazed around them. "How hard can it be to find a butterfly that distinctive?"

To make her point, Aelin hefted her swords and took several steps in the direction they had last seen Azaelayna take. Something lifted off of a flower in front of her. Aelin took a hasty swing at it, and it exploded into a cloud of dust that smelled like an odd mix of sugar and garlic. Kalyn rushed over in excitement.

"Was that her?"

"No. Red."

As if on cue, half the flowers in the field opened their petals and released an oversized, brilliantly-colored, glitter-ridden butterfly. The winged bugs (not that they really looked like anything that could be called a bug) immediately set up a drifting, swirling dance in midair around otter and squirrel.

Kalyn glared at Aelin. "How hard can it be?" She said mockingly.

"…Get lost."

"Love to." Kalyn stalked away, but barely got five steps before the butterflies started to land on her. She swatted at the insects, but still they came, latching onto her fur, tunic, belt…

Humming a sweet, repetitive tune (_can_ butterflies hum at all?), the butterflies began to beat their wings in unison and lift Kalyn from the ground.

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH! DIE, FIENDS, DIE!!" The sound of a lightsaber being ignited cut through their hum and ended most of their pathetic little Sue-riddled lives. The squirrel waved the weapon around wildly, erupting into a panicked frenzy as she whirled around, trying to keep the pests off her. "YOU'RE WORSE THAN MOSQUITOES!!"

Aelin sighed and waded into the fray, swinging her garlic-coated swords and spinning about almost at random. Aim didn't matter here; wherever a sword went, it was bound to hit one butterfly or another.

There was an odd fluctuation in the air, and suddenly a blue-tinged unicorn with deep, sad eyes bounded out of the field and toward the forest.

Kalyn spotted her first. "There she goes!" she screamed, still burning butterflies to crispy flakes. "AND SHE'S A SITH-SPAWNED UNICORN!"

"I saw her, I saw her!" Aelin replied, whipping through three more of their humming tormenters as she shouted. "Shoot her!"

"With what? My dagger glare?"

"You've got a bow, and arrows! Use them!"

Kalyn glanced over her shoulder with surprise. She had forgotten about these…In a quick motion, the squirrel shut her pocketknife's lightsaber mode off and slipped it back into its belt pouch. By the time she had her bow in paw and an arrow at the ready, however, the unicorn-that-was-Azaelayna was almost out of range, and all the remaining butterflies had gone to ground.

Despite the distance, Kalyn took aim out of sheer desperation and let the arrow fly. Perhaps out of luck, or perhaps because she subconsciously called on otherpath-powers, the arrow struck the fleeing unicorn in the flank, making the creature stumble and cry out.

"YES!"

"Good shot," Aelin said, sheathing her swords. "Come on, let's get over there and give her a good garlic spray-down."

The unicorn lifted her head and stared at them with eyes to rival Bambi's from across the field. She then turned away, heaved herself to her hooves, and shivered.

A bit of blue smoke began to rise from the ground she stood on, and she began to grow in size. Luminescent, feathery wings erupted from her back as her body abruptly changed into that of an elegant dragon with feather-soft paws and a slender, graceful neck. However, when she snorted with poise, a flicker of a blue-colored flame shot out.

"Umm…Kalyn, I think it's a good time to go now."

"No."

"Why not?"

The dragon pushed off the ground with a silent beat of its wings.

Kalyn growled, and went into 'ALL CAPS MODE'. "YOU FLY AWAY, HUH? COWARD! CUR! COME DOWN HERE AND FIGHT LIKE A REAL BEAST! YOU LILY-LIVERED, LARD-BUCKETED SLIME OF A HUTT! YOU'RE MORE COWARDLY THAN A FLOBBERWORM YOU—"

"Kalyn! Calm down."

The squirrel quit yelling, and instead fell to snarling wordlessly in the direction of the rapidly-diminishing dragon.

"I think we have three options here. A, we go home. Why bother? Let someone else do it. B, we spend the next month or two wandering Mossflower in search of a blue-and-silver shape-shifting sometimes-fox. C, we stoop to her level, use the otherpaths to turn into something that flies quickly, and chase her down right now, before she gets out of sight. What say you?"

"Turn into a dragon. Now. I'm riding."

"Yes, Master," Aelin said with a teasing bow. She straightened, took a deep breath, and suddenly where the otter stood, there was a coppery-brown dragon with wide, bat-like wings and back-swept horns. She crouched low to give Kalyn a way up onto her back.

"Master, huh? I kind of like that…"

Aelin-dragon snorted, fire leaping from her mouth and nostrils. She twisted her large, spined head around and stared hard at the squirrel. "Don't get any bright ideas there, kiddo."

"Please. Roast her tail off."

"Gladly."

With a roar of pleasure, Aelin kicked off from the ground (Kalyn ended up laying back flat between the shoulder joints of the dragon's wings, knocked down by the draft and sudden motion) and began to fly in earnest toward the faint blue spot in the sky.

"For the uni-corns! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!"

"Sometimes, you scare me," Aelin shouted back through the wind. "And I thought that I was supposed to be the frightening one!"

"I recently had a lot of sugar, you know! That makes me scarier than you are _without_ that much sweet stuff!"

"You just keep in mind which one of us is the fire-breathing dragon," Aelin replied. She then turned all of her concentration onto chasing down Azaelayna, who, it turned out, wasn't as far away as she had seemed from the ground. Her blue coloring simply seemed to melt against the sky. Once Aelin and Kalyn had a greater altitude on her, she began to show up very clearly indeed.

"She's not flying very fast, is she? Think my arrow might've done it?"

"Probably. Even Sues can have limits. Careful, though; she might be deliberately playing up the injury for the drama of it all."

Kalyn snorted quietly from Aelin's back.

Somehow, they managed not to fly directly over Redwall, which was probably a good thing, despite being so high up that anybeast on the ground would only think he saw a couple of birds. The last thing either Slayer wanted was for Azaelayna to dive for 'refuge' in a place like that. That one _would_ cause a panic.

Instead, they raced over woodland, so quickly that only minutes later, the blue line of the sea was visible ahead of them. Her strength obviously flagging, Azaelayna began to circle downward, heading for the beach. Aelin followed at leisure; through her dragon senses she could smell sickly-sweet blood, and she knew her prey was cornered. Kalyn, however, wasn't so relaxed about it.

"GET HER! GET HER GET HER GET HER! WHAT'RE YOU WAITING FOR, FRY HER WINGS OFF!"

Aelin rolled her slanted dragon eyes, but complied, dropping lower. She inhaled deeply, and as Azaelayna landed on an outcropping of rocks and shifted back into her original fox form, Aelin let fly with a jet of bright amber flame.

Somehow, the Sue found strength to dodge the blow. She landed, gasping dramatically, in a reclining position, one paw over her head as though to shield it. Aelin rolled her eyes again, though this time at Azaelayna, and circled around to land.

Kalyn jumped off of the dragon's back the moment all four sets of claws hit the sand. By the time Aelin had reverted back to her usual otter form, Kalyn was rushing forward, charging the Sue, who retreated with an over-dramatic gasp, tripped over a rock, and fell heavily on a boulder.

_CRACK_!

Both slayers froze in their pawsteps for an instant. Azaelayna didn't so much as twitch where she lay. Aelin crept forward until she was even with Kalyn, then both tip-toed together to where the Sue's prone form rested.

"Do you think she's dead?" Aelin whispered, not taking her eyes from the Sue's spread-eagled form.

"She's not…faded away yet," Kalyn said in a normal tone. She shut off her lightsaber and found a limb of driftwood caught in the rocks. With that limb, the squirrel cautiously poked Azaelayna. The fox never moved. Her neck was laying at an odd angle across the larger stone.

"We could always make sure," Aelin said, pulling the can of compressed garlic oil from her new utility belt. The otter took a safe three steps forward, pinched her nose shut with one claw, and started spraying. Every part of the Sue the garlic hit began to fizz, spark, and melt into mushy pink-black goo. Aelin backed off and watched.

"You know," she said musingly as the Sue melted away into a nasty-looking stain on the sea-washed stones, "It's kind of like pouring salt on a slug. Absolutely disgusting, but so much fun."

"You, Aelin, are so very disgustingly scary at times. Makes me think you're almost worse than Arawolf…"

"Nobeast is worse than Arawolf at that sort of thing. I don't keep a small brain around because I like to poke it."

"Point taken."

"I just like to cause physical torment and mental anguish. Speaking of, have you received your disturbing-mental-image-of-the-day yet?"

"No. I think I'm going to leave before you can catch up with me…" Kalyn hurriedly opened up an Otherpath portal and stepped through before Aelin could inflict such torment upon her.

"Kalyn," Aelin said to the air, "I was a dragon earlier today. You really think you can run faster than a dragon can fly, even in the otherpaths? Guess again." Aelin vanished into the portal with a giant grin, leaving the seashore bare except for an oily black stain that slowly was washed away by the sea.


End file.
